Animorphs Redux: Book One
by UKHoneyB
Summary: There were supposed to be five, not seven. They were meant to be thirteen, not sixteen. Yet their goal is still the same: defend the Earth against parasitic invaders from outer space. Eternal hiatus.
1. Prologue: Jake

Prologue – Jake:

If you'd told me that I'd end up being the leader of a small resistance group against aliens, I probably…well, I wouldn't have laughed in your face, but I'd make an excuse, thinking that you were yet another of those mentally unstable people, go home, and laugh in the security of my own home.

That was over four years ago. Four years of relentless attacks, four years of being a leader when more than on occasion I wanted to crawl under the covers and pretend none of this was happening, that it was all a long, terrible dream. I would have given anything during those times to return to a normal life, and then I remembered: I was the only one who had a chance of keeping the freedom of others, the only one who had a chance of winning this war.

There were seven humans who knew about the war and were not infested. Not one authority figure would believe a bunch of teenagers who rambled on about aliens from outer space infesting peoples' brains and turning them into slaves. We would have been tossed into a mental facility, the only defense of the human race put under near-constant surveillance.

We've all got normal lives now, and I don't know about the others, but the nightmares still haunt me, what I did, what I ordered, linger at the back of my mind, and nothing can erase my memories.


	2. Chapter 1: Jake

Chapter One – Jake:

I should have known something was up when shooting stars were flying overhead, visible in the night, moving far faster and with more agility that I thought was possible, yet I decided to ignore it. The next morning it was still on my mind, but shrugged my shoulders, dumped my backpack onto the back seat of my car, got in and drove to school.

I muddle through school, not doing great, but not one of the ones who're always bringing home D's and such. I managed to maintain a B- average, unlike my cousin who regularly gets an A average. She's the type people get jealous of: good looks and breezes through school with seemingly little effort.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Cori, probably the shortest person in our year at just over five feet, slam her locker shut in frustration. She jammed her books into her backpack and threw it onto her back, storming through the crowds.

I closed my own locker, holding my books in my hand and walked after her, quickly catching her short stride with my longer one.

"What's the problem?"

"Dez," she muttered, diving into the girls' bathroom so I couldn't follow her. That one-word answer was all I needed to hear from her.

Dez was her older brother/parental unit/authority figure, and had been for the past two years. Unfortunately, even though they were siblings, they didn't exactly get along much. Cori picking up smoking habits and routinely staying out until the early hours of the morning didn't help matters much.

I turned to walk away, heading towards my first class, when Cori walked out of the bathroom, her hands still wet. Giving them a quick shake, she looked up at me.

"He's being annoying, as usual. Giving me crap about this, that and the other. He's saying I should concentrate on schoolwork more. He's one to talk: he left high school when he was my age, with nothing to show for his education. At least I'm holding a C average."

I said nothing, just nodded to show the pretence that I was listening to her. She usually bitched about the same thing every morning, although whether it was out of actual annoyance or just longing for her brother to be her brother again, I wasn't sure.

"Oh, I don't believe this!"

Breaking me out of my thoughts, I turned to look at Cori, eyebrow raised as if to ask what had happened.

"I forgot my Algebra homework! Mr. Matthews is gonna have a shit-fit. I'm gonna have a week of detention!"

"I'm afraid you'll have to make that two weeks of detention, Cori," a stern voice said, and I knew who it was before I'd even turned to look. Vice-Principal Chapman, widely known as someone who'd put students in detention for small things such as putting gum under the table. If you were caught swearing, then you could easily say goodbye to your freedom for at least a couple of weeks.

"Ah, Vice-principal, I didn't mean to, it's just slipped –"

"Two weeks, Cori. And there's no use trying to worm your way out of it," Chapman said, walking away.

Cori muttered an epethit quietly, and for once, I agreed with the sentiment.

ooooooooooooooo

"I was beginning to wonder when you'd get out of detention," I muttered later that day as Cori flung her back into the back of my car. "I've been waiting here for a good fifteen minutes.

"Chapman met me in the corridor after I left and gave me a stern lecture about the use of 'inappropriate' language in the corridors." She sighed. "How was basketball practise?"

"Same as usual. Couple of good attacks and baskets, mainly mediocre ones, Brad was reprimanded yet again. If he carries on like this, he'll be kicked off of the team Never mind that he's close to being kicked out due to his grades anyway."

"Mmm, yeah," Cori said, leaning against the side of my car. "Mind you, you're pretty close to being kicked out too."

"No, I'm not. I'm well over the GPA needed."

"Yeah, you were last semester. This one? Uh-uh, not as much luck."

"I'm still doing all right. I just need to concentrate more on studying."

"And less staring at Cassie's ass."

"I don't stare at her ass. I don't stare at anything of hers."

"No, you more cast sideways glances at parts of her anatomy, pretending that you've been concentrating on your work whenever someone shows the slightest chance of having noticed you doing said glancing." Cori sighed again. "Why don't you just ask her out already? What's the worst that can happen?"

"I get shot down," I said flatly. Rejection was not something I was good at, especially romantic rejection. I considered myself one of the best basketball players in out high school, and I was devastated when I wasn't allowed to complete in an inter-state basketball tournament. Being rejected by someone I _liked_ would probably give me more than a few days of teenage depression.

"You ask, you get shot down, you move on. That's life," Cori said, opening the door and sitting down in the passenger seat. "Come on, if you don't hurry up your parents and my brother are gonna wonder where we are…or more specifically, what we were doing."

"I get the message," I replied, walking over to the driver's side, then freezing, looking skywards. "Cori?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you believe in aliens?"

"Why?"

"I think I just saw an alien spaceship crashlanding." Leaping into my car, I jammed the key into the ignition, started the car and yanked the steering wheel. Pressing the accelerator all the way down, I sped out of the car park and headed in the direction of the crashing ship.

ooooooooooooooo

"So, let me get this straight. You –" Cori said, pointing to Tobias, "– were stargazing and saw this unusual phenomenon occurring and rushed over here, phoning up her –" she pointed to Rachel "– who then phoned up you –" she moved to look at Cassie "– and you all rushed over here while you –" she then pointed at me "– phoned him –" she pointed at Marco "– and told him to get his ass over here? And then you –" she turned, pointing at Branden "– were skulking here anyway."

"Yeah," everyone said, with varying degrees of confidence and embarrassment.

"Well, so long as everyone's clear on having a seven-people party when that thing lands –"

"If it lands," Branden replied with a snort of annoyance. "It's probably just a low-flying aircraft or something."

"A low-flying aircraft which seems to have trouble staying up in the air," Tobias replied, head inclined to look up at the sky, a pair of binoculars in his hands. Squinting at the aircraft, he instead looked through the binoculars, and shook his head. "Too far away, and not enough light to see through them." He handed the binoculars back to Cassie, and scratched his forehead.

"What is it circling for? If it was damaged, surely the pilot would land it. It's almost like it's looking for something," Rachel said. Almost as soon as she stopped speaking, the craft banked sharply, heading straight for us.

"Good going, Rachel, the pilot thinks you're an expert in aviation engineering, and is going to crash into us in order for him to ask you how to fix his craft," Marco snapped as all seven of us backed off, trying to stay close enough to see the craft, but far away enough to avoid being crushed, as Marco so eloquently put it.

After a few minutes of panic, the craft finally came to a halt, and we could see how alien-looking it was.

About the size of a minibus, it had a scorpion-like tail arching over the top of it, looking like a weapon. All of us shuffled forwards slightly, wanting to investigate but none of us daring to venture further than anyone else.

Tobias stepped forwards, and almost as soon as he did so the door of the craft opened. The interior lights blinded up for a few seconds then, as our eyes adjusted, we could see who the pilot was.

"A deer?" Cori asked in disbelief, shaking her head.

"A weird deer if it is one. What deer have you seen with arms and a scorpion tail?" Marco shot back. The owner of the craft stepped onto the ramp leading from the door to the ground, and instantly collapsed.

"Are you all right!" Cassie yelled, rushing forwards. Her worry about seeing someone injured overcame her fear of who that someone was, and spurred the rest of us into action.

"You're injured, what happened?" she continued to question, putting one of its many-fingered hands around her shoulders, holding them up. Her eyes tracked along their body, noticing the many burns marring their blue-and-tan fur.

someone said, the voice speaking inside my own mind. 

What he said next would change all of our lives.


	3. Chapter 2: Cassie

Chapter Two – Cassie:

Ignore his injuries…I couldn't let him die, not while I was there. "Jake, Marco, one of you give me your shirts, I can use it as a bandage to –"

the alien said, closing his eyes and beginning to breathe more heavily. 

He stopped speaking and looked at the seven of us. Comprehension dawned on Marco's and Jake's faces, and Marco stepped away.

"Uh-uh, I'm not getting myself involved in an intergalactic war, no way. Leave this to the people who are involved."

"I will," Tobias said, followed by Cori, Rachel, and myself. Branden looked completely disinterested, Jake was hesitating, and Marco still flat-out refusing.

"We should take this to the authorities. Seven teenagers does not make a good Army in any circumstances," Marco said. "I'm out. So very out I was out before the baseball was even thrown."

"Do you really think any adults would believe us if we told them we saw an alien spacecraft crash and a dying Andalite told us that another alien species called the Yeerks were invading and asked us to help defend the planet?" Rachel said, glaring at Marco. "They'd lock us in a mental institution before we'd even finished the first sentence." She turned to look at the Andalite. "What do we have to do?"

All eyes fixed on Jake.

"Wha-why me!" he cried, holding his hands out and stepping back.

"Because you're the leader?" Cori said with a smirk on her face.

"Hang on, I never agreed to anything!"

"Jake, I believe you're the best one to lead our group," I said with a smile, walking forwards and grabbing his hand. "If anyone's the leader in this group, it's you."

Coloring up, Jake nodded and, resigned, walked into the alien craft, reappearing moments later with the blue box. The Andalite took it from Jake, and then held it in his open palm.

We did so, and the box began to heat up beneath my hand, eventually giving me a small, but unexpected electric shock. Removing our hands, we all looked at the Andalite, who seemed to be growing worse by the second.

Something on a control panel in the Andalite's ship began beeping, and he lowered his stalk eyes. 

All of us began walking away: Jake and Cori heading for his car, Rachel following at a distance; Marco jogged away, heading for his house; Branden snorted and stuffed his hands in his pockets, walking in the opposite direction to Marco; I began walking away too, then changed my mind and headed towards Jake, Rachel and Cori; Tobias…

I looked around, realizing that he wasn't walking away, and found himself kneeling down next to the Andalite. The Andalite pressed one of his hands against Tobias' forehead, and Tobias' eyes shot open before he slumped back, unconscious.

"Tobias!" I yelled, seeing him wake up while I was shouting his name.

the Andalite said, presumably just to me and Tobias as no one else reacted. 

I frowned, wondering what the Andalite had done, before walking over to Tobias, grabbing an arm, lifting him to his feet and mentioning that we were getting a lift home thanks to Jake.

ooooooooooooooo

Despite it being almost eleven PM, I managed to sneak back into my house, largely due to being able to walk through the barn attached to our house without being disturbed.

I lived in a converted farmhouse on the edge of the town, and the barn was where my father worked, and where I occasionally helped him. He took in injured wildlife, treated them and released them back into the wild. As a consequence, we had numerous animals native to where we lived in cages with varying injuries, as well as a couple of tame horses which belonged to us.

I opened the door connecting the barn to the house, and stopped. The Andalite said we now had the ability to morph into animals…I walked back, heading to the stable section where we kept the horses. Calling over my favorite mare, I stroked her mane and then moved to her forelock, unsure of what to do next. Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on her image in my mind, while I continued to stroke her forelock.

After a half-minute or so, during which the mare was extremely quiet, I moved my hand away and began to concentrate on the same picture I had in my mind while I was stroking her.

The first thing I noticed was that my head was starting to grow unusually heavy, so much so that my neck was starting to bend forwards, forcing my chin to my chest. Ignoring it, I continued to concentrate on morphing, almost collapsing onto the floor when my hips changed, forcing me from a bipedal primate to a quadruped equine.

My hands began to melt and merge together, forming hooves within a few moments, followed by a sudden growth of my arms and legs. Fur covered the skin there, and began to sprout all over my body, the hair on my head retracting and forming a long, thin strip down the back of my head and down the back of my neck.

I heard a tearing sound and looked over my shoulder as best as I could to see the clothes I had been wearing as a human begin to shred, splitting at the seams. _Gives Rachel a good excuse to drag me shopping,_ I thought to myself, rolling my now-horse eyes.

Layers of muscle began to be laid down, bulking out my body and making me look more horse-like and soon, within about two minutes, I was no longer a human but an exact replica of the mare I had gotten…no, acquired DNA from. Despite the fact that my bones had been elongated and twisted, and my internal organs changing and growing, I felt no pain.

"Cassie? Is that you?" my father called, and I fought down a wave of panic. Demorphing (and finding myself changing back to a _naked_ Cassie), I grabbed my ripped clothes and hid inside one of the empty stalls.

My father walked in, switched on the lights, and glanced around. Seeing nothing, he shrugged his shoulders, turned off the light and walked out of the barn, closing the door behind him.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I looked over my clothes and wondered if there was a way to change with at least some clothes on: I didn't really want to come out of a mission against the Yeerks, change back into a human, and be naked in front of all the others, especially Jake.

Once I was sure my father had retreated to somewhere in the house, I moved out of the barn and dashed to my room as fast, and as quietly, as I could. Pulling on a ratty t-shirt which I slept in, I rummaged through my wardrobe, finding a few tight t-shirts, shorts and an old leotard from when Rachel dragged me to gymnastics a few times before I decided it wasn't for me and quit.

Dragging out the clothes, I laid them on my bedroom floor, considering whether or not to try my theory tonight, before I remembered that I still had school tomorrow. Stuffing the clothes back into the wardrobe, I got ready for bed.


	4. Chapter 3: Jake

Chapter Three – Jake:

"Jake, are you awake?"

I woke up, wrapped up in my bedcovers, and spent a few seconds disentangling myself before I realised that my mom had asked me a question.

"Uh, yeah, I'm awake. Why?"

"Tobias and Cori are here, they want to speak to you."

"Hang on a second," I called back, grabbing some clothes and throwing them on. Rushing over to the door, I yanked it open to see both Tobias and Cori standing there.

"You've forgotten already? Christ, you've got a poor memory," Cori said, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of my room.

"Forgotten what?" I asked, bemused. "We didn't agree to anything."

"Yes, we did," Cori said, nodding at me slowly and digging her nails into my skin as if to say 'play along'. "We need to finalize the plans for our English assessment, we were going to talk about it over breakfast."

"Oh…oh, yeah, I did forget," I said, still wondering what was going on. The consequences of which meant, five minutes later, a new t-shirt on, the three of us were in my car, driving to the nearest McDonalds to get breakfast.

ooooooooooooooo

"You'd better not get any syrup on the car seats, otherwise you'll be cleaning it up," I said, keeping an eye on Cori and Tobias as they both scoffed down their breakfasts, a hotcakes platter and Sausage McGriddle respectively. I picked at my Egg McMuffin, not really hungry and my mind more preoccupied with wondering why they'd called me out here.

We were sitting in an empty car park, Cori in the back seats, Tobias in the front passenger seat, and myself leaning against the door. Finishing her breakfast, Cori tossed the empty box into a nearby bin, just managing to get it in.

"So," she said, lying down across the seats. "We need to figure out what we're going to do. How do we identify who are Controllers or not, if we can get the Controllers to return to normal people and, most importantly, how we can attack the Yeerks."

I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it before I could say anything. Tobias saw the movement and smirked, knowing what I was thinking.

"Jake thinks it was all a dream, a prank, or both."

"I don't think it was, I just…I don't think we should be dealing with this. We're teenagers, we can barely get any jobs which don't involve working in a fast food chain or as a cleaner. How do you think we're going to manage fighting this war and still keep going to school?"

"We get lucky," Cori said, sitting up. "We hit them quickly and often, see what works, and concentrate on repeating that attack, with you at the helm, Jake."

"Why me? Seriously, why does everyone think I'm the leader?"

"Because we trust you," Tobias said. "You're a natural-born leader."

ooooooooooooooo

We slogged through the school day, trying to concentrate with varying results in our group. Despite being best friends, Marco and I were in separate high schools, and he attended the same one as Branden did, so I had no idea how well they were coping, but amongst our group, Rachel didn't seem distracted at all, while I could barely remember what the teacher was talking about five minutes ago, despite him warning that it was extremely likely to come up on a test.

I managed to make it to lunchtime without any of the teachers being overly suspicious and, having grabbed lunch, wandered over to where Cassie and Tobias were sitting.

"We're meeting after school ends," I decided abruptly, causing Tobias to look at me oddly, mouthing _when did we decide that?_ to me. "We need to figure out what to do. Your barn's okay, isn't it?" I asked Cassie, who nodded. We then piled our three lunches together, picking out stuff which we liked to eat, and sat in silence, each lost in our own world.

_I wonder if it hurts,_ I thought to myself, frowning to myself, then nearly choking on a chip as Cori hit me on the back. It was meant to be friendly, but it still surprised me. Once I was sure I wasn't going to die, I looked at Cori who, in the meantime, had sat down, added her lunch to the pile, and began to eat.

"What?" she asked innocently, wondering what I was looking at her for. "You weren't going to die, I know the Heimlich manoeuvre."

"The same manoeuvre you used on Pete that one time, causing him to break a rib?"

"He's still alive, isn't he?" Cori said with a shrug, reaching over and grabbing some more food. "So, any thoughts on this?"

I looked around and, seeing no one but Rachel walking past us, said in a loud voice, "After school meeting at Cassie's barn, to finalize the project. It shouldn't take very long."

Cori groaned in annoyance. "I can't make it: I've got detention."

"Just head over when you get out, we'll recap for you," Tobias said, and Cori nodded. "Now that's sorted out, we turn to the question of why school lunches are always so mediocre?"

"Because you're too cheap and lazy to make your own lunch than buying it here?" Cassie said with complete honestly. Her contribution to our joint lunch was both healthy and home-made, as opposed to the rest of ours, which was basically anything which looked half-appetizing to us.

"You try making sandwiches when you've got one slice of white bread, mustard and chocolate ice cream," Cori said. "Although, we might have some tuna in the house somewhere," she added with a grin.

"Explains why you're always going to McDonalds for breakfast then," Tobias commented.

"Hey, _you_ were the one who suggested going there this morning!"

"And how many times have you been there in the past week?"

"…Three. All of those times were because there was absolutely nothing in the house which was breakfast-worthy."

"Sure, I believe that."

"Well, if you don't, why don't you stay over for the next few days. I'm sure you won't mind eating mouldy bread or rotting apples."

"You don't throw that stuff out?"

"I do, but I was giving examples as to the type of food you routinely find in the fridge."

The warning bell for the next class period sounded and we all stood up and left the cafeteria, all heading to our respective lessons. I was just grateful to get out of there before it turned in a full fight between Cori and Tobias.

ooooooooooooooo

"I tried morphing with clothes on," Cassie explained to the six of us, minus Cori, as she demorphed from her horse form back to her regular human form, wearing a leotard. "Anything which was smaller than the horse body was shredded. My shoes managed to survive, but my jeans and t-shirt were destroyed."

"Are you up for shopping tomorrow then?" Rachel said brightly. "There's a new clothes store which has just opened, thirty percent discount for the rest of the week." She smiled at Cassie to show that she wasn't completely serious.

All of us had moreorless rushed over as soon as class finished, stopping only to put some skintight clothes on underneath our regular ones, Rachel deciding that this meeting was more important than cheerleading practise and skipping out on it. Marco and Branden had arrived slightly later than the rest of us, owing to the fact they went to a high school further out than ours was.

"I wasn't entirely sure anything skin-tight would work, but it looks like it does," she added, now fully human.

"Hurt?"

"Huh?"

"Does it hurt when you morph?" I explained, both wanting to know and fearing the answer. "All the bones changing and growing and all that."

"No, no pain, it more feels like you've been given a painkiller before you morph," she explained, walking over to the barn. "We got a new bird this morning, in the center."

"You want us to try morphing birds?" Branden said sceptically, and then snorted. "Yeah, a bunch of dumb pigeons will be a great help against the Yeerks. What'll we do, coo them to death?"

Cassie just looked at Branden over her shoulder, as if unable to comprehend what he'd just said. "There are a lot more birds in here than pigeons. Ospreys, red-tailed hawks, golden eagles –"

"I'll take the golden eagle," Branden said. "Where is it?" Cassie told him where it was, how to acquire it, told him to be careful and, within a couple of minutes, was back and ready to morph.

"You just need to concentrate on the animal, like when you acquire it," Cassie explained, earning an eye-roll from Branden before he started to morph. He was about half a minute into it when Cori ran up, gasping for breath.

"Police…car, there's a …policeman heading here, now." We all looked at each other in panic. How were we supposed to cover up a half-human, half-bird?

"Branden?" Rachel yelled at him. "Demorph, now!"


	5. Chapter 4: Branden

Chapter Four – Branden:

I stood up on my half-formed talons, flapping my arms in an attempt to keep my balance and failed, landing with my ass sticking up in the air. Demorph back to human? How would I explain standing in the middle of this group of idiots, wearing only legging bottoms and the tightest t-shirt I could find?

No way.

Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the golden eagle in my mind, trying to speed up the morphing process. I felt my arms, more specifically my hands, changing to form the wings, with feathers popping out from under the skin.

My nose and mouth turned gray, hardened and then pushed forwards, like someone hitting my face from behind, forming the beak. A tail sprouted out of my prone ass, beginning as a single feather then spreading out.

My eyes changed, sharpening my vision, enabling me to see all the details on the jacket the policeman was wearing, right down to the number on his badge. I opened my beak, then closed it and tried to talk to the others, managing to fight down the eagle's instincts.

<I'm a golden eagle, I'd think this would draw less attention than a teen guy in tight clothes standing in the middle of a group of people. I'll pretend to be injured, you guys do…whatever the hell you do with injured animals.>

"I think his wing's broken," Cassie said in a loud voice, quite probably loud enough to carry over to the policeman. Scooping me up in her arms, very close to her breasts, she began to head back to the barn when she pretended to notice the policeman.

"Can I help you?" she asked, pinning me securely against her chest. Acting the part of a distressed animal, I lashed out with one of my talons, scratching Cassie on the forearm. "Sorry, I'll be right back, I need to sort this bird out."

She walked back to the barn, quickly shutting me into a free cage, before walking back out to confront the policeman.

ooooooooooooooo

"So they're looking for a bunch of presumably drunk teenagers who set of a bunch of fireworks and scared the hell out of nearby residents? Considering the fact that there's no one who lives even remotely close to that area, he's probably a Controller," I said, leaning against one of the many hay bales littered around the barn.

"What makes you say that?" Cori asked. "The spacecraft lights could be mistaken for fireworks…"

"Which is probably the reason why they're feeding that line to normal people so they can avoid questions over why they're apprehending teenagers when they find them. Who's gonna care about a group of teenagers getting infested by Yeerks?"

"Us?" Tobias said defiantly. "Especially if those teenagers are us."

"So what's the plan, fearless leader?" Rachel asked, turning to look at Jake. "How do you propose we storm the barracks and get the Yeerks to surrender to us?"

I snorted, shaking my head in disbelief. "If it was that easy, wouldn't the Andalites have done it by now? One quick attack, and that's it, the Yeerks are gone." Rachel glared at me.

"Have you got any ideas, genius?" she asked and, to her surprise, I nodded.

"Surveilance. They've got to have some kind of meeting point, right? An army can't function without getting details and commands from someone or somewhere. We just need to keep an eye out for suspicious behaviour."

Little did I know that I'd be encountering that kind of behaviour the very next day.

ooooooooooooooo

"Mr. Burrows, may I talk to you for a moment?"

I grimaced, trying to think of anything which could have gotten me into trouble while I turned to confront the person who'd intercepted me. Tisha Northway, our high school's vice-principal, was leaning out of her office door, looking at me intently.

"I need to talk to you about your report card. I'll give you a note to give to your teacher for next period," she added. Well, gee, if she was that nice, how could I refuse?

I walked into the room, slipping my backpack off and sitting down as she closed the door. Putting her glasses back on, she walked around the desk, sat down and pushed a piece of paper towards me.

"Mr. Burrows, it's come to my attention that you've been tormenting some of the younger members of the school community which, as you should know, is against school policy."

_They asked for it,_ I thought to myself, mentally fuming. _Sometimes_ literally _asked for it._

"However," she added, waving my report card in the air. "I've also had bought to my attention a special youth club, run by volunteers, which is only a few months old, yet has a brilliant reputation for fostering relationships between people of differing backgrounds."

"So…you're willing to waive my records if I attend this overblown version of a Boy Scouts group?" I said, sneering. "And what are the odds I'm going to take you up on that offer?"

"Very good odds, considering I have the ability to ensure you fail your classes so that you're left repeating the year and thus some of your victims will actually be your classmates instead."

I glared at her, but said nothing. The clock on the wall ticked by for a minute until I sighed.

"Where do I sign up?" I relented, and Ms. Northway smiled.

"They meet on the main beach two times a week: Tuesday evening and Thursday evening. Every month they have an all-day event on Saturdays, but you'll have to find out what event will be occurring this month."

"So," I said, picking up my bag. "Are you going to be there?"

"Oh, no, I'm only passing along information. I believe that Vice-Principal Chapman, of the neighboring high school is a volunteer."

ooooooooooooooo

I relayed the information to the others, and got a name: The Sharing. As I suspected, it seemed to be a less formal version of the Boy Scouts, more focused on making friends and having fun than earning badges for completing events. We agreed to meet there that night, as it was a Thursday, and I learned something else.

Tom, Jake's brother, was a volunteer at The Sharing.

ooooooooooooooo

"Brendan, Ms. Northway informed us you'd hopefully be joining us," a man I assumed to be Mr. Chapman said, shaking my hand in greeting. "I'm afraid there's not that many newcomers, not compared to the full members, but I'm sure you'll have no problems fitting in." He turned to greet the people behind me, and a huge smile appeared on his face. "Jake! I've been hearing a lot about you from your brother, I hope you'll find The Sharing as interesting as he does."

"Of course, Mr. Chapman," Jake said as the rest of our group passed by Chapman.

"There's no need to be so formal here, Jake. Call me Hedrick."

The sun had barely set, yet there were numerous safety fires dotted around at strategic points on the beach, presumably to give light once the sun did set.

The main focus of this day's meeting was volleyball and a barbeque, or at least that was the first things they'd put up so far. The barbeque had yet to be lit, but there was already a volleyball game in progress.

"This doesn't look too bad," Cassie commented, although a small grimace appeared on her face. "I hope they have vegetarian food."

"Of course we do," a stranger said, all but bounding up to Jake and Cassie and wrapping an arm around their shoulders, so that he was standing in between them. "Tofu, Quorn, vegetable kebabs, we're not about to leave a huge percentage of The Sharing's members starving hungry."

"Hey Tom," Jake said. "How're you doing at college?"

"Same old, same old. Classes are great, I'm glad I didn't opt for a college out of the area. I wouldn't be able to keep helping out here if I did."

The next hour and a half passed in a blur. The barbeque was lit when the sun was half-set, giving an oddly nice glow to the whole beach, with more than enough food for everyone involved, meaning plenty was left over. Beer was provided for those at and over the drinking age, Coca-cola for those who weren't, but Tom still managed to sneak a few cans for himself and anyone who asked.

Volleyball games, instead of being the usual six-a-side were stripped down to two-a-side, with the team first to five points winning. The altered rules made the game very fast, adrenaline-pumping and friendly, making you get to know your team-mate very quickly.

"Hey, Midget, the full members have got a meeting, we'll be back in about half an hour," Tom said before he disappeared, and Rachel looked at his disappearing figure questioningly.

"I wonder what the _full members_ talk about which we newcomers aren't allowed to hear." She turned to look at the rest of us, and Tobias smiled.

"I've got a cat morph. A few rolls in the dirt, and who cares about a stray cat?"


	6. Chapter 5: Tobias

Chapter Five – Tobias:

I'd decided to acquire Dude, my pet cat, on a whim. It was more of a test to see if I could morph rather than any reason I could think of that we'd need a cat morph for.

I slipped behind one of the scrubby bushes on the side of the beach when I was informed that there was no one besides us there, and began to morph into Dude.

I felt my ears migrating from the side of my head onto the top, and changing shape, followed by my nose. My teeth too moved and changed shape, my jaw hinge altering as well. Light and dark gray fur began sprouting along my body, turning me into a human-sized fluffy gray thing with cat ears, nose and jaw.

My hands turned to paws, as did my feet, and my arms and legs began to shrink until my stomach was almost lying on the ground. The rest of my body began to shrink, following the lead my appendages gave. My hips changed and a fluffy tail sprouted and, finally, the last change was to my eyes.

Standing in the middle of my clothes was now a small silver tabby. After taking a few seconds to get the cat's instincts under control, I rushed through the bush, messing up my fur, followed by a roll in the sand before shaking it off.

<Well?> I asked the group, looking at them. 

"Very much so," Marco said as Jake retrieved my clothes, stuffing them into his backpack so that no one would come across them by accident and wonder where the owner of the clothes was.

Without a farewell, I dashed across the beach, swivelling around when I heard the scratchings of some kind of rodent, and began to stalk it. Before I could pounce on it, however, the rodent disappeared beneath the sand and despite my best efforts, dug down too deep and too fast for me to reach it.

Shaking my head, I trotted towards the meeting group, circling around when I deemed that I got close enough, trying not to act too friendly. A bird in a nearby bush began squawking loudly, and my ears swivelled around to pinpoint the sound. Figuring out that it was coming from the bush near to Chapman and Tom, I began to slink towards it.

" –only reports are of a blue five-seater convertible near the scene and time the Andalite scum landed. My host's brother drives one, although he denies anything to do with the situation."

"Were any number plate details recovered?" someone asked, someone who looked extremely familiar.

"No," Chapman said, looking annoyed. "We only have the color and the fact that it's a convertible to go on. By that information, the people who saw the filth could be any one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people."

"Can't we do an investigation of all the owners of such a car?" the same person as before asked, and I had a flash of realization: he was the policeman who questioned us at Cassie's barn.

"We may have the manpower, but questioning every owner would bring up too many questions. We're not even sure it was a teenager in that car, and so even interviewing the teenagers with such a car would be a waste of time."

I pounced, missing on purpose, sending the bird into the air, causing a massive racket. Most of the people in the meeting turned to stare at me and, letting cat instincts take over for a moment, began to run away.

Hiding in a bush, far enough away to not attract attention, yet near enough to still hear the meeting, the topics moved from finding the people who may have encountered the Andalite 'scum' to feeding schedules. Controller-Tom mentioned to someone, another teenager, that he needed to go soon: he'd gone earlier today and thus he needed to feed on Sunday.

_Feeding?_ I thought to myself, a short memory surfacing in my mind. Large, gray slugs swimming in a pool of what looked like molten lead, while the Controllers looked on, some silent, some screaming and hurling abuse, but all locked up in cages.

<Yeerk pool,> I said to myself. Looking up, I saw someone scouring the area, and decided to make myself scarce before they found me.

ooooooooooooooo

"It looks like they need to feed," I said, yanking on my pants in a secluded place not too far from the beach while the girls looked away. "Like we need to feed every day, it looks like Yeerks need to feed too. They crawl out of their hosts and into a giant pool, a Yeerk pool, to feed."

"Hang on, I doubt they would have discussed the details amongst themselves like that. It'd be like eating for them, instinctive, why would they need to describe it?" Branden said, folding his arms across his chest.

"The Andalite, when you were all walking away, gave me a shot of information. I'm still figuring stuff out, untangling it, while some information reveals itself when I need it, like it did back there." I pulled on a shirt and brushed hair back from my face. "I was wondering what the Yeerks did when they fed, and the information showed itself. You can turn around now," I added, and Cassie, Rachel and Cori did so.

"Come on," Rachel said. "We need to get back before they get suspicious."

"Yeah," Jake agreed.

ooooooooooooooo

<So, what's the plan?> I asked, swooping underneath Jake the next evening. We'd agreed to something akin to telephone tag: Jake would phone Marco and myself, Marco would phone Branden, I'd phone Rachel, Branden would phone Cori and Rachel would phone Cassie. Within a couple of minutes we'd all be notified, morphed into birds and scanning the streets of the town looking for Tom and any other people we'd identified as Controllers.

There were two bad things about the plan: one, bird of prey had absolutely horrible night vision, worse than humans, so we were hoping to find someone before we had to call it off for the night and two, red-tailed hawks and peregrine falcons weren't the best buddies in the bird world.

<We look for someone we saw at The Sharing, identify where the Yeerk Pool is, and investigate tomorrow. I don't know about you, but If I'm not back home in time for curfew, I won't be much of a leader if I'm grounded and unable to leave the house.>

I didn't say anything other than a quick agreement. My house life wasn't exactly the best, not with an alcoholic uncle being your only guardian on the pacific coast. I'd learned how to avoid his wrath, though, so it wasn't too bad.

<Hey, there's someone! Chapman!> Jake said suddenly, going into an almost as sudden hard left turn, leaving me awkwardly flapping and trying to backtrack to keep up with Jake.

<Where is he heading?> I asked, opting to turn in a wide circle rather than fight against the wind in a sharp turn.

<He looks like he's heading towards the middle school, our old middle school,> Jake informed, starting to dive. His eyes focused, it looked as if the peregrine's instincts had taken over and, upon seeing a nice mouse, was diving to catch it.

Almost at the last moment he flared, flapping his wings in order to gain height and rejoined me up in the air.

<They're congregating around the janitor's closet, so that's where we'll be concentrating our efforts on Sunday.>

<Jake, um…Cori?> Cassie asked, uncertainly. Cori and I had both acquired the same red-tailed hawk which, along with Cassie and Marco acquiring the same osprey, was certain to cause a little confusion in the group.

<Tobias,> I corrected. <We think we might have found where all the Yeerks are going to feed.>

<Where?>

<The janitor's closet in our old middle school,> Jake supplied. <I need something which I can morph that's small, not too small, and would be fairly common around a middle school.>

<I think I've got the perfect animal,> Cassie said. She then explained and Jake, grumbling but accepting that it was probably a good morph, ended up crawling around Cassie's barn with a bucket in one hand and a flashlight in the other looking for a green anole lizard.


	7. Chapter 6: Cori

Chapter Six – Cori:

"Have you found it yet?" I asked, causing Jake to hit his head on a low-lying shelf and begin muttering curses, mainly at the shelf but a handful at me.

"What're you doing here? Haven't you found…whatever it is yet?"

"I thought Cassie told you."

"She did, but I forgot." Jake glanced at his watch, but I stopped him. "Don't worry about the time, I told your parents that you were staying over my house. I think you've still got some clothes stored there."

"Yes, from when we got into a waterfight when we were thirteen, got soaked and your brother lent me clothes to walk home in while mine dried. I never saw them afterwards."

"Dez probably forgot. Either that or he saw them, thought they were old, and threw them away. Why do you care? You wouldn't fit into them anymore."

Jake stood up, combing a cobweb out of his hair. "I cared three years ago," he muttered, shaking his arms.

"So, you're looking for a gunge analogue lizard? Is that right?"

"Green anole lizard," Jake corrected. "I've been looking for one for hours, and had no luck."

I grinned. "Want some help?"

ooooooooooooooo

A couple of hours after that we managed to corner a lizard. Jake had taken the bucket and the torch, and I grabbed another torch. Between the two of us, we'd almost searched the whole barn when Jake found it.

A slam of metal against stone, then, "Ha! Cori, I got one!" Jake looked pretty triumphant for having just moreorless thrown a bucket onto the poor lizard and was holding it down with his hands.

"So…what happens now?" I asked, still unsure of the whole morphing process. Between the seven of us, we'd acquired nine animals, but only four of us had actually morphed: Jake, Tobias, Cassie and Branden.

"I stick my hand into the bucket, hope the lizard doesn't like fingers, grab it and acquire it." Jake then looked at me, an idea flashing through his eyes, and explained to me what he had in mind.

It looked like my first morph would be a lizard.

Oh, goody.

ooooooooooooooo

"Are you _sure_ this is a good idea?"

"You mean us becoming a group of teenage shape-shifters in order to save the world?"

"No, sneaking in to middle school, hiding in some way-too-small lockers, changing into lizards and finding the entrance to a Yeerk Pool which, I might add, we have no idea what it looks like."

Jake said nothing, just continued standing watch as I broke into someone's locker the next night. Well, 'broke in' was an exaggeration: I'd managed to locate my old locker, hoping that the combination hadn't changed in a little under two years.

It hadn't.

"Okay, yours next," I said, pointing down the hall to where I remembered Jake's locker used to be. "I'll see you in ten minutes," I added, stuffing myself into the locker and slamming it shut.

As soon as I heard Jake's retreating footsteps, I concentrated on the lizard. Its black eyes, scaly skin, creepy twitching tail…I shuddered, then tried to make myself look at it from a more scientific perspective, and failed.

I found myself shrinking, so much so that I wasn't huddled up in the locker any more. That feeling didn't last as I grew smaller still, my tattered jeans rushing up to meet me, and envelop me in their denim depths. I was tiny, the size of the lizard, but a tiny human.

I felt my hair being sucked intro my scalp, and saw my hands turning green and scaly, followed by my arms and, I assumed, the rest of my body.

I was forced into a four-legged position, and a tail sprouted from my butt, twitching and writing as much as the one on the lizard we'd caught. I was finally fully-changed.

Then the lizard instincts kicked in.

I was pushed to the back seat…no, to the boot, and the lizard took over, screaming in my head that it was trapped. Trapped in the darkness, with nowhere to do. It scrambled up the walls, across the floor, trying to find an exit. Then, seeing light flickering through the slits, it headed there.

Poking my head through one of the slits, the lizard brain finally calmed down enough for me to take control of it. I crawled out of the slit and was gripping onto the side of the locker, my head pointed towards the floor, my tail pointed towards the ceiling.

<Jake?> No answer. <Jake, are you morphed yet?> With no answer to that either, and the lizard brain growing restless once more, I dashed to the floor, then began to move across it at breakneck speed.

I was like a Formula One racer: nothing the same size or smaller was faster than I was. I could have sworn paper fluttered in the draft I left behind, and that I was leaving tiny dust trails ala the Road Runner.

I came to an intersection and headed right, just in time to see Jake gulping down a large spider. It was almost fully in his mouth, with only two kicking legs still visible. As I watched, Jake swallowed the spider, still kicking, and turned to look at me.

<Jake? Oh -> I caught myself before I swore. <Jake, the lizard instincts have gotten hold of you! Snap out of it!>

<…Do I want to know what's kicking its was down my esophagus?>

<Well, would you rather know, or would you rather have nightmares about what you ate?>

<I'd rather know, then I can go into abject panic before we even start this mission.>

<It was a spider. Looked pretty big and juicy.> Jake muttered something. <Hey, you eat the equivalent of eight spiders a night while you're asleep…or is that a year? A lifetime?>

<I don't think I want to know.>

After that, we scuttled off to the janitor's closet like…well, like a pair of green anole lizards scuttling off to the janitor's closet. On more than one occasion we had to hide underneath the lockers as someone walked past, completely ignorant of us. We'd almost reached the janitor's closet when –

<Jake! What's wrong!?> I yelled, peering out from my hiding place. Someone was standing on Jake's tail, someone who looked…I glanced up quickly, trying to sort the distorted image into something my human mind could easily distinguish.

<Someone's standing on -> Before I could finish the sentence, Jake's tail had been severed and Jake rushed towards me, his tail still flicking and writhing, as if it was still attached to his lizard body.

<I'll be fine…in a century,> Jake said as the person walked off, not even taking a glance at the floor to see what he had stepped on. Guess feeding is on a tight schedule. 

As we reached the janitor's closet, the Controller was already there, doing a complex sequence…well, complex if you're looking through unfamiliar eyes.

Tap the left side of the room, turn the second hook to the right, Jake said, and only then did I realize he wasn't with me. I saw movement, and turned back to see the back of the janitor's closet slide upwards, revealing a set of stairs leading down to the basement.

And, leading up from those stairs.

Were screams.

Human screams.


	8. Chapter 7: Rachel

Chapter Seven – Rachel:

"They were definitely human," Jake said. It was early Saturday morning (too early, in Marco's opinion) and we were gathered at the mall, one of us grabbing breakfast: Cori.

"Four times," Tobias muttered as she walked back towards us, carrying a polystyrene plate of something hot, and some OJ.

"Dez hasn't gone shopping," Cori replied to Tobias' despairing shake of the head. "And besides, someone –" she looked pointedly at Jake "– won't let me borrow his car to go shopping in."

"Harsh," Marco commented snidely, leaning back in his chair and turned his head to look at Jake. "You were a lizard, who knows what you two heard. Even screams of terror and screams of joy are hard to distinguish if you're not thinking."

"They were human. Human and full of terror. I'd bet my…well, not my life, but next months' food budget," Cori said. "We need to investigate."

"To ensure _we're_ the ones screaming in terror? No thanks. It's harsh, but I just remind myself: I don't want to die. You all decided, without me, it seems, to go and fight in this war.

"It's all right for you two," he added, pointing at Cori and Tobias, "no one really cares about you, but I've only got my dad. After my mom disappeared –"

"So we just ignore this because it's best for Marco?" I sneered. "The world can go to hell so long as your father doesn't lose you? What's to say the Yeerks even want all six billion of us? For all you know, you go to accept your new masters, and they kill your father in front of you. Or worse, they infest you and tell you to kill your own father, and you're trapped, unable to say anything or do anything to stop it."

"I can't force anyone," Jake said, interrupting me before I could go any further. "I just want to get my brother back somehow, and I can't force any of you to help –"

"I'm in," Cori and Tobias said.

"There's no one else who can help. If we just roll over and let them walk all over us, then the war's over before it's begun," I added, and Marco just shook his head.

"If it wasn't for Tom –"

"You don't have to –" Jake began, but Marco cut him off.

"Oh, shut up! Like I'd let my best friend walk into danger without being there to back his sorry ass up. I'm in. For this one mission. _One_ mission, and that's it. Once Tom's free, I'm out."

Cassie had said nothing, but had a small, hesitant smile on her face. "Back in the old days, centuries ago, people used to believe animals had spirits, and asked to borrow them. The cheetah for its speed, the fox for its cunning, the lion for its strength, the eagle for its eyesight. What we're doing is the same, on a basic level. Humans borrowing animal's DNA to help themselves."

"Which means it's the only thing we've got going for us. If we're going to fight, we need something better than a cat, an eagle, a horse and two lizards. We need something that can actually fight, not something people would coo over." I paused. "We need to go to The Gardens."

"Can you get us in?" Jake asked Cassie, who looked a little unsure.

"I can get in free, I might be able to get you guys in on a discount with my mom's employee discount, so it'll be cheaper."

"No need for that," Marco said.

"Why?" three voices asked: me, Cassie and Branden.

"Just tell them we're Animorphs. That'll get us in for free."

"Tell them we're what?" I asked.

"Idiot teenagers with a death wish."

"Animorphs," Jake tried. It sounded okay.

ooooooooooooooo

Tom's Yeerk wasn't due to feed until Sunday, the next day, so we had the whole day to acquire morphs and work out a plan.

Pooling our money together, six of us managed to get tickets. Why six? Because Tobias was riding the thermals high over The Gardens, not wanting to acquire any new morphs. 'The red-tailed hawk works perfectly fine for me,' he said.

"Over there," Cassie said, waving a hand to the left, once we'd gotten in and Tobias had joined us. "We've got the snakes, lizards and basically anything which needs warmth to live, and further on, the dolphins."

I inwardly smiled, managing just about to prevent myself from wandering over to coo at the dolphins.

"And here–" Cassie waved a hand to the right "– we've got the larger animals. Tigers, gorillas, zebra, anything which needs a bit of space. And most probably the animals we're going to need."

Looking every which-way, Cassie wandered over to one of the employee doors, pulled it open and led us inside. Taking a quick inventory of the 'hidden' side of The Gardens, I realized we'd have to rely on Cassie's knowledge of what was behind the door. I'd never know if door 307 contained a moreorless harmless zebra, or a hungry grizzly bear.

"This is a new resident," Cassie said suddenly, stopping at one of the many numbered doors. "Big Jim, a gorilla, just moved here from another zoo so he's on his own for the time being." She picked an apple out of her bag and held it. "Any volunteers?"

"How about you, Marco?" I said teasingly. "Don't you want to be a strong, muscled belonging to family of apes, humans ?"

Marco just looked at me, taking the apple from Cassie's hand and stopped with the door half-open.

"Is…it safe?"

"There's a second fence between you and him when you walk in. He can't jump out in front of you, and you can't walk into the enclosure. He's extremely gentle."

"Right," Marco said, not sounding at all convinced as he let the door swing shut behind him.

ooooooooooooooo

I mentally ticked off the animals we had acquired so far. Marco, a gorilla; Cori, a lioness; Branden, a grizzly bear; Cassie, a wolf. That only left Jake, Tobias and myself to acquire something useful. Knowing Tobias, and what he'd said earlier, he wouldn't even bother to look at the animals, leaving just myself and my cousin.

Cassie stopped in the middle of the walkway, turned around, looked at a door number, shook her head and then turned back around and started walking again.

"Forgetting what's where?" Jake asked, and Cassie nodded in embarrassment.

"No, hang on, elephant. That was the elephant enclosure. Anyone want to acquire it?"

"I'll do it," I said, waling towards the door. Once the door swung shut, and elderly-looking elephant wandered over to meet me, tusks scraping the fence separating us. I stepped forwards, placing a hand on one of the tusks and began to acquire it.

Genetically, we share more with the great ape family, but in terms of relationships and actions, we have a lot more in common with elephants. An elephant herd will always raise an orphaned baby, just like how we have an adoption system to care for orphaned humans.

They live for around eighty years, reaching puberty at around age twelve, similar to the lifespan and puberty age of humans. They fell sadness, loss, pain, and even enact revenge, usually reserved for the orphans whose parents were killed by poachers or ivory hunters.

They mourn the dead, staying with the deceased family member for hours, sometimes days, before going on with their lives. They recognize that that elephant is dead and will not return, and accept this for what it is, and don't try to look for their 'lost' friend.

As I finished acquiring the elephant, I heard a shout coming from outside, and Jake ordering the others to run. Slipping out of the enclosure, I ducked into a shadowy alcove and began morphing into a bald eagle.

When the morph was almost complete, a young employee, probably about eighteen, rushed by the alcove. He must have seen something, maybe my 'bald' head, and stopped, peering in.

Snapping my beak, I pretended to have a broken wing, taking a cue from Branden. The employee looked startled, muttered something about getting help, and ran off. By the time he returned, I was long gone, heading back to Cassie's barn.


	9. Chapter 8: Marco

Chapter Eight – Marco:

How do I get myself talked into these things?

We were in The Gardens, quietly acquiring deadly animals, when we were interrupted by an employee who looked old enough to be my grandfather.

"Left!"

I dodged right, sliding on the tarpaulin which lined the employee walkways. Cassie, Tobias and Cori had split off in one direction, Branden in another, while Rachel was left behind at the elephant enclosure. Jake and yours truly were in a fourth group, running for our lives.

I chanced a glance behind me. Grandad was gasping for breath, radioing in for more back-up, I presumed. Either way, we needed to get out of there.

Coming across another intersection, I veered left, putting my hands out in front of me to stop myself from slamming into an unexpected wall. Catching my breath, I heard Jake turn into the alleyway, also gasping for breath.

"And now, it's our contestant's final choice. Will he go for door number one, or door number two, Steve?" I joked.

We were in a dead end, with two options: a door labeled P-201, or another door labelled P-203. No doubt Cassie would have known what was in each one, but we weren't in a position to call her and ask.

We did have a third option: let ourselves be caught by the guards. The worst that could happen would be Cassie getting grounded for three months, leaving us a person short.

Unless the person who caught us was a Controller. A very suspicious Controller, who had reason to doubt the fact that we weren't just delinquents taking a dare by poking our heads through the doors containing dangerous animals. A Controller who suspected we were Andalites.

Ensuring we'd be taking a walk to the Yeerk Pool, leaving the Earth defenseless.

"Door number one," Jake managed to say, walking over and opening the door labelled P-201.

A blast of bright light hit our eyes, and we both blinked rapidly to clear our eyes.

The rhinoceros blinked too.

"Wrong door," Jake said, slamming the door closed before the rhino could class us as its enemies. "Door number two then."

Jake opened P-203, and all we could see were trees partially blocking out the sun, leaving dappled patches of ground where grass was growing.

"That is one high barrier," I muttered, catching a glimpse of it. High up, it must have been ten meters or more, people were leaning over a railing, looking down a steep incline to whatever was in this enclosure. And let me tell you, with something that high, I was beginning to doubt that whatever was in here bore a resemblance to Bambi.

"Whatever's in here is just a good jumper, right?" Jake asked nervously. "I see a ladder, that's gotta be our way out of here."

"I'm just wondering where the guards are," I said, looking at the door behind us. "I mean, they know where we are, why not just bust down the door and catch us? There can't be that many enclosures around here to check."

"Maybe there's nothing in here. Maybe it's a plant exhibition," Jake added, squatting down. That's when we found it.

The animal in the enclosure.

Jake must have felt the heat emanating from it when he sat down, because he looked up at me, and asked me the question I really, _really_ didn't want to answer.

"Um, Jake? You're sitting on a tiger."

A male Siberian tiger, probably the largest tiger in existence. Three meters long, three hundred and fifty pounds of sinew and muscle.

And it was looking at us, seeming extremely peeved.

I started running away, breaking out of the shade of the trees and into the grass, right into full view of the spectators. Only then did I pause, realizing that Jake wasn't with me.

He was back with the tiger, his hand on it. He was acquiring it.

"Jake, get away from there, now!" I yelled, and Jake seemed to take note. Unfortunately, unlike all the other animals we'd acquired, the tiger didn't lay there lazily for a few seconds before waking up.

Instead, he leapt over Jake, running towards me!

"There they are!" The guards, great. I either had the choice of becoming tiger chow, or a Yeerk's body at worst.

I probably made the stupidest decision ever.

I ran towards the tiger.

Yelling and flailing my arms, the tiger paused, unsure of what to do next, which gave me just enough time to run past him, get to the back of the enclosure, fling the door open and run into the safety of the employee walkway, Jake following very close behind me.

Slamming the door shut, he slumped to the ground. "Never…ever…are we going to do that again."

"For once, I agree."

ooooooooooooooo

We crept into the rhino enclosure next door, making sure to keep hidden from both human and rhino, until we were sure the commotion had died down. After that, we sauntered out of there and back to Cassie's barn, where we had agreed to meet up before we started this whole escapade.

"What held you up?" Cori asked, who was drinking Coke when we finally got back. "You guys have been gone ages."

"For some reason, we attracted the attention of all the guards nearby, and managed to get caught by tigers in their enclosure. After acquiring one, we hid out in the enclosure next door, and then made our way back here." Jake caught my look. "What?"

"You'd never be a good storyteller. You don't draw out the drama, the suspense! The fact that people will have to keep reading to see if we survived or not! With you, a story is over in three pages."

"Why would we need suspense? You're back, alive and with no missing limbs, sadly in the case of Marco," Rachel said. "About the only thing you could draw out would involve you using all the extraneous details, like what color shirt the guy who was chasing you had on."

"Brown, but does that really matter? We stared death in the face! We were in an enclosure with two fully-grown tigers and we're here to tell the tale!"

Cassie appeared, carrying a bucket and wearing gloves. "Oh, you're back," she said, a tinge of concern in her voice.

"'Course we are, do you really think two tigers could finish us off? It was a battle between might and intelligence, and intelligence won flat-out. The tigers, with their mighty grace were nothing compared to the humans with their huge brains. The tigers were easily outwitted and soon –" I stopped, not because I wanted to, but because Rachel had clamped a hand over my mouth.

"We've already heard about the encounter from Jake, we don't need to hear it again."

"But he omitted the most important parts, like how we dodged death and got a new morph into the bargain," I added, after pulling Rachel's hand away. "What kind of story is it where there's no guesswork, no wonder, no fear?"

"One where we know you survive."

"Well, to start a new topic of conversation," Branden said. "We've got the morphs, how are we going to attack the Yeerk Pool?"

"We need to get Tom out," Jake said determinedly. "We'll set up a call system, where I'll inform you when Tom heads to the Yeerk pool and –"

"How will you know if he's just heading out?" Cori asked.

"Tom doesn't have much of a social life outside of The Sharing, so if he's heading out, it's to one of those two places. I know the major meetings of The Sharing, so if he leaves on a night with no meeting, I know he's going to the Yeerk Pool."

"Let's hope," Rachel said.


	10. Chapter 9: Cori

Chapter Nine – Cori:

I muttered to myself, wiping sweat from my forehead, watching as I missed a drop and it instead landed on my English homework. Twisting my hair up, I turned off my radio, thinking I heard something. The usual hum of the air conditioner was notable by its absence: that would explain the sweating, as the September nights were almost unbearable in this part of the country. There were no other sounds, though, so I turned the radio back on.

Getting up, I flung my window open, nearly knocking a red-tailed hawk out by my actions. The bird seemed to glare at me, but I ignored it, walking back to bed.

A flutter of feathers drew my attention, and I turned around to see the bird flying into my room and landing on the floor. I looked at it with curiosity, wondering why a bird of prey would do something like this, when I saw its feathers begin to move of their own accord.

When the bird started changing from a bird to a human, I screamed.

ooooooooooooooo

Tobias tried to say something, but got thoroughly whacked by the pillow I'd thrown at him at what seemed like over a hundred miles an hour. Grabbing the pillow before it fell to the ground, Tobias tossed it back onto the bed while.

"What're you doing here?" I hissed, thankful that my brother wasn't home, and the fact that in this neighbourhood, screaming wasn't seen as a reason to call the police. I checked my clock quickly and balked. "Half seven already?"

"Yep," Tobias said nonchalantly. "Everyone's waiting at the school for you; you never answered your phone. I said I'd come and find you."

"Phone hasn't been working all week. I'll be there in a few minutes," I said, making sure my top looked more 'teen walking around with her boyfriend' than 'ratty old t-shirt worn at home and hasn't been washed for three days'. Once certain, Tobias remorphed into the hawk and flew out the window.

I grabbed my keys from underneath my bed and rushed out of the flat, making sure to lock the door after me, and started to make my way to the school.

ooooooooooooooo

"Where's Cassie?" I asked once I arrived, seeing that everyone else was already assembled, with Tobias perched on Rachel's shoulder.

"I'm not sure where Cassie is," Jake said. "I tried calling her up, but her mom said she wasn't there."

"Maybe we should just bail until we know what happened to Cassie," Rachel offered, and Jake seemed to nod.

"Could be she's just scared. I know I am," Marco said.

"Maybe," Jake agreed, although his face seemed to tell a different story.

"So, Cassie's not here. Are we gonna go in, wait for her, or do this another day, what?" Branden said, getting edgy. "I've been standing around here long enough."

"Yeah, we're doing this," Jake said with a deep sigh.

Although the school was locked up each night, Marco knew of one window that wasn't locked at all, and allowed us easy access to the school. Once inside, Rachel dashed over to the classroom door and opened it slightly, looking out to check.

"Tobias," she whispered, beckoning him over. "I need your eyes, quickly."

Tobias obeyed, fluttering over and landing on Rachel's shoulder. He peered out of the crack before Rachel shut it quickly yet quietly.

"What?" Jake asked. "What's wrong?"

<That policeman who was at Cassie's barn. He's got her.>

"What? How did –" I stuttered, looking from Rachel to Tobias and back again.

"He probably saw her at the Sharing meeting, saw her trying to get close to the 'full members' and got suspicious. I'm willing to bet he recognized her from the barn as well, and decided to turn her into a Controller," Marco extrapolated, and I looked at him, confused.

"So, what are we going to do now?" I said, looking at the rest of the group.

<We can't afford to stall,> Tobias said. <He's got Cassie: if they make a Controller out of her, it's all over. The war would be won before it's even started.>

"Tobias is right," Jake said, sounding a little dejected. "No choice, we need to go in now." He glanced over at Tobias. "Can't morph back now, just make sure no one sees you."

With those words, we walked out of the science room and headed towards the janitor's closet.

As luck would have it, we encountered no one else on our trip, and squeezed into the tiny room while Jake tried to remember the correct sequence. He tapped the left-hand wall, then twisted the second hook from the left to the right, the door swinging open in front of us.

I shuddered as I heard the sound of human screams drifting up, along with the sound of the surf gently lapping onto a beach, combined with the sound of human laughter. The first sound worried me, the second confused, but the third sickened. From the expressions on everyone else there, they appeared to be feeling the same emotions.

"If I see a guy with horns, a tail and a pitchfork, I am so outta here," Marco attempted at joking as Jake took the initiative and started walking down the stairs.

Once all of us were on the steps and out of the room, the door shut behind us, leaving us with nowhere to go except forwards.

The steps were carved out of stone and had no handrail, the combination of those two factors making it feel like someone could slip and end up falling all the way down to the ground. Considering the loudness of the screams, I expected the stairs to number no more than a couple of dozen, but they just kept on going.

"Superior aliens, my butt," Marco said. "If they're so superior, surely they've invented an elevator." Despite ourselves, we all giggled slightly at the comment. Very slightly.

Eventually, the walls widened out into a cavern, and we all saw the vastness of the Yeerk pool. From us expecting it to be about half the size of the school, what we saw seemed to extend to cover half of the city. Dotted around the edges were dozens of stairways exactly like the one we were walking down, meaning that our school entrance wasn't the only one in existence.

"Oh, man, this is much worse…this is so much more worse…" Marco said to himself, but was close enough to me that I heard his whispered fear.

In the center of the cavern was a pool filled with a substance which looked like molten lead, the surface occasionally being broken by the creatures living in it, leaving small rippled which were swallowed up by the size of the pool.

Humans and Hork-Bajir were lining the edge of the pool, humans ten to a cage while the Hork-Bajir were enclosed one each in a bigger, stronger cage. Occasionally more humans and Hork-Bajir were thrown into the mix, taken from the line waiting by one of the two steel piers. Some humans and Hork-Bajir were taken from the cages and lead to the second pier, where their heads were forced underneath the liquid, kicking and screaming, calming down when the Yeerk took control of their bodies once again.

One woman at the unloading pier bent down calmly, and a gray shape started dribbling out of her ear before dropping into the pool underneath.

"You filth!" she began screaming once the Yeerk was in the pool. Immediately, two Hork-Bajir grabbed her, one to an arm, and threw her in a cage. "I'm a free woman, you can't do this to me, you can't do this to anyone! You'll rot in Hell for what you're doing here!"

"Oh, God…" Rachel moaned, both sounding and looking like she might be sick. "Oh, no, no, no…"

As evil as the loading and unloading piers were, what sickened me the most was the group of humans sitting around, sipping drinks and watching TV. Judging from their laughter, they were watching a sitcom.

"What? _Why_?" I said in disbelief. Allowing someone to take over your body voluntarily…it made no sense to me.

<They think a Yeerk will solve all of their problems. They believe that, by taking on a Yeerk, they'll become something different, someone new, and be able to leave behind all their problems and pain.>

"Like spending all your time as a hawk," Marco said. Tobias gave him a glare as good as a hawk could, before spreading his wings and flying away.

"What was that for?" I asked, looking at Marco, but before he could answer, Rachel stepped in.

"We're going to need everyone for this missions, all right? So just shut up and be nice to Tobias." At Rachel's words, Branden snorted in disbelief, and Rachel glared at him. "That means you too, Branden."

"Is he…?" Jake started asking, before trailing off as if he didn't want to know the answer.

<Yelling his brains out at the Hork-Bajir guards. Cassie's getting near the end of the pier. We've only got a few minutes before they infest her.>

We reached the bottom of the stairs and hid behind a storage container. Marco pulled Jake over and they started saying something, but were talking too quietly for me to hear them.

"Hey! What're you kids doing here?!" a man yelled, and both Jake and Marco jumped. "You two, why are you standing there!"

_Two…_, I thought. _They must mean Jake and Marco, which means they haven't seen Rachel, Branden or myself._

I looked over at the two afore-mentioned 'invisible' people, and saw that both of them were morphing. Not one to ignore a fight myself, I too started to morph.


	11. Chapter 10: Jake

Chapter Ten – Jake:

"Who're we? Hey, man, who're _you_?" Marco demanded. His eyes widened for a second as he saw Cori and Branden race off, evidently to wreak havoc of their own while Rachel was pre-occupied.

"Take them," the man ordered to the Taxxon and Hork-Bajir who were flanking him. None of them noticed when Rachel slid behind them, still morphing; her ears expanding to the size of, well, elephant's ears; her nose extending into an elephant's trunk and finishing off the morph by reaching the full height of an elephant.

She waited for a moment, unsure about how to start the fight off, or even if she should, and then the Taxxon noticed her. The Taxxon stepped backwards a few steps and then stopped, judging to see what Rachel would do next.

Raising her trunk, Rachel charged straight towards the group of three.

Seeing the Taxxon's reaction, the Hork-Bajir spun around and, using his arm blade, slashed Rachel, but it was a case of too little, too late.

<You dare to attack me?!> Rachel yelled as the Hork-Bajir was trampled underneath her feet, his bellows engulfed by Rachel's trumpeting. The Taxxon, seeing the kind of destruction Rachel had caused to the Hork-Bajir, began to run away, but found himself sliced open by one of Rachel's tusks. Yellow goo oozed from the wound, slimy and foul-smelling.

The human just stood there, having turned around upon hearing the attacks on his fellow Yeerks, and was blinking in disbelief.

"An elephant?" he finally said, and Rachel picked him up with her trunk and with what I swear was a smirk on her face.

<Yeah,> she said. 

"Quick, morph!" Marco yelled at me, but I didn't need telling twice. I focused on the tiger, feeling the power ripple through me as the tiger's DNA took over from mine. Fur grew on my face, my arms, everywhere, the orange and black striped pattern replacing my skintight t-shirt and bike shorts. My fingernails narrowed and hardened, turning into the claws of the tiger. My hips changed direction and I fell forwards just as my tail extended from my coccyx.

Morph complete, I saw a group of Hork-Bajir rushed towards us, and I smiled internally. With this power, _nothing_ could stand in my way, I was invincible!

Leaping at the first Hork-Bajir, knocking him to the ground.I jumped off of him, unintentionally giving him time to recover. He slashed his arm blades at me, but I dived underneath and left four gaping wounds in his shoulder.

Another Hork-Bajir appeared, looking like a blender on full power: all blades jutting out with seemingly no opening. I leapt at him, too.

What happened next was mostly a blur: I just remember myself with claws slashing and teeth snapping, a blur of orange and black fur mercilessly attacking the enemy.

When all the Hork-Bajir had fallen back, I roared in triumph, then saw how my friends were faring. Rachel was tossing anyone who got in her way over her shoulder, leaving them battered and bruised on the floor. Any which got back up were swiftly dealt with by Cori who was just as fast as I was, her lioness morph giving her the perfect speed and agility she needed.

Brendan was using his might and roar to scare away some of the Hork-Bajir, attacking any which were brave – or stupid – enough to stay.

Marco was using his gorilla strength to punch and throw any Hork-Bajir which crossed his path, and any he punched went down and stayed down.

After not even a minute of fighting, the Hork-Bajir turned tail and ran.

<Now,> I ordered. <Get to Cassie before they have time to regroup!>

The five of us plowed through the ranks of Controllers, knocking aside anyone who didn't get out of our way quickly enough. We reached the cage where the humans and Hork-Bajir were being held prisoner, and all of them shrank back, afraid of what we'd do to them.

Marco ripped off the padlock of one cage, then bowed and crooked his finger in a 'come hither' fashion. Tom was the first out, completely scared and looking around as if he were afraid that a Hork-Bajir Controller would appear out of nowhere and attack him.

<Jake!> Rachel yelled, stopping my idea of sending Tom a message to tell him who I was. 

<I'm on it!> Cori replied, dashing off before anyone else could respond. I turned my attention back to Tom before jerking my head at him, telling him 'climb on my back' which he did, a bit unsteadily. Rachel helped him up with her trunk before picking up a couple more people and placing them on my back as well.

<You all right with them?> Rachel asked.

<Yeah,> I replied, turning my head skywards as I heard the screech of a hawk. Tobias was speeding towards the Hork-Bajir which were holding Cassie's arms, forcing her down towards the pool. Reaching one of the Hork-Bajir, Tobias tore his talons across its eyes while Cori leapt at the second, both she and the Hork-Bajir landing in the Yeerk Pool.

Cassie broke away, yelling at everyone around her to run, which they did. I hesitated for a few moments, seeing Cori climb out of the pool unharmed and, after a full-body shake, began to herd the freed people away from the pool.

<Morph and head for the stairs,> I yelled to both Cori and Cassie, the former order only intended for the latter person. Cori dashed over to join our group while Cassie dived into the crowd and soon a horse's head appeared, mingling with the crowd and racing for the stairs.

<Up and over,> I said as Cassie joined us. Ahead, there was a blockade of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, all holding weapons. Our group sailed over them, their weapons firing uselessly.

And then _he_ stepped into view.

<I must commend you for getting this far. I thought all you Andalites died when your ship burned up in this planet's atmosphere,> Visser Three said as he looked at our group. His body began to ripple and grow, and I knew we were in trouble. <I acquired this morph from the planet Kejada. Like it?>

The Visser's morph was a towering creature, with eight massive legs, eight spindly arms each ending in a three-clawed finger. Where the top set of arms grew came the heads. Eight of them.

We couldn't take on this creature, not if we wanted to survive. Our backs were to the stairs, a crowd of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons between us and the stairs, while ranks of Taxxons crowded around the Visser, like hunting dogs around their master. We only had one choice.

<Run! Up the stairs!> I yelled, and we all turned around and ran up towards the stairs, following my command.

<Yes, yes, run. It makes for a more challenging target.>

I looked behind me as he said that, looking past the bodies of the three people that were holding on for dear life, and wished I hadn't. From one of the Visser's mouths erupted a fireball, heading towards us with incredible speed. The fireball hit one of the people riding Cassie, and she fell off, screaming and rolling in an attempt to put the flames out.

<Target practise!> the Visser yelled gleefully as he fired off shot after shot, many missing but many also hitting the mark. My butt got singed; Rachel's ear had a hole burned through it; Brendan's fur was patched with black, and Cori no longer had a tail tassle.

We hit the bottom stairs and Rachel began to demorph, her form only not suitable for stair climbing, but also too large to fit through the cavern.

By the time were had raced up a few dozen stairs, we only had a handful of people and two Hork-Bajir left, the rest either having tried to fight off the Controllers, or been hit by the fireballs and fallen. Tom was one of the last few humans with us, his hand gripping my fur tightly and his head turned to look behind us, deathly white.

We'd been climbing the stairs for thirty minutes when the two Hork-Bajir were brought down in flames, the Visser chasing us up the stairs. Cassie was almost to safety when the Visser came into view, pelting the area in front of us with fireballs.

<That's it, I've had enough!> Branden bellowed, turning around as best as he could and faced the Visser. 

Cori turned to face the Visser as well, blocking the path between them, allowing the rest of us some time to escape. The Visser bellowed something so loudly that I was unable to understand it until my mind had sorted through the noise.

<You won't escape, I'll hunt down all the humans you've rescued and turn them back into Controllers. They'll never be free!>

We burst through the door to the janitor's closet, Rachel slipping away when she finished demorphing. Our rescue count was three: a lone woman who had been riding on Cassie, the person who had been in the middle of our group and thus shielded from the majority of the fireballs, and Tom.

My brother.

My brother was free.

Cori and Branden emerged from the hellish pit a few minutes later, both looking severely singed but telling us that the Visser didn't look like he was interested in pursuing us any more that night. We left to take shelter in a nearby patch of trees which, while it wouldn't last for long, would be long enough for what we needed to do.

<Jake? You can't tell him,> Cassie said, sensing my emotions through my morph. <What if Visser Three follows up on his threat to recapture Tom? If you tell him who you are, Tom will tell the Visser about you. They'll come after you, and you'll betray all of us.>

As much as I hated to admit it, I could see the sense in what Cassie was saying. Telling Tom would just endanger us all: having him free was more than enough for me.

"Won't we be recaptured?" Tom asked, and I looked at him sadly.

<Quite probably. If you keep up normal appearances and your Yeerk wasn't a prominent member of the invasion, you may escape detection for a while, but it's not foolproof.>

"So we've just been freed only to escape again?" the woman who was on Cassie's back asked incredulously.

"I'd rather spend a few weeks being free and then recaptured than spend this time still being a slave to the Yeerks," the third person, a man, said. "Even if I am recaptured, I'm not going to resent being free for however long it will be. If anything, this event has given me hope. Hope that the Yeerks _will_ be defeated and it'll be at the hands of these Andalites."

Tom and the other woman nodded reluctantly, neither looking completely convinced, but after a few seconds all three of them left, heading home.

<We'd better follow their lead,> Marco said.

<Yeah,> Cori agreed. 

All of us looked at each other and, at the same time, we all shook our heads.

I had fears, but didn't voice them to the group. Instead, we all demorphed and headed for home, myself at least lost in thought.

_Was Tobias our first casualty of war?_


End file.
